Name: Kusha Rathee

AGE: 10 YEARS

Country: INDIA

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PProject: Illustration of lucy’s mission and expected exploration

Team Name: Asteroids secrets

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Hi, I am “Lucy”

I will take you to a tour of my forthcoming mission, Are you ready to explore this journey with me?

I got my name from fossilized human ancestor that was found, and given the same name, in Ethiopia in 1974.

Do you know the story behind my target selection?

My first Trojan target, Eurybates, was selected because it differs from most of the other Trojan asteroids in two ways: it is both the largest remnant of a rare massive collision, and it has a neutral-colored C-type spectrum. Scientists hypothesize these two facts may be related, and that by exploring Eurybates they might get a glimpse of the “insides” of asteroids exposed on the surface.

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So with careful planning and a little luck, the team of scientists found a trajectory passing objects spanning the full range of colors (including redder-colored D and P spectral-types) and with different sizes (from less than a mile (approximately 1 km) to around 70 miles (over 100 km) in diameter.

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have you ever seen how “trojans” are revolving in our solar system?

No!

Then just have a look !

My goal will be to show the diversity of the primordial bodies that built the planets for the first time and unravel the unexplored secrets of our solar system!

Also, you will be amazed by knowing that my boosts from Earth's gravity, will be completed in a 12-years journey to eight different asteroids — a Main Belt asteroid and seven Trojans.

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Do you know when I will be starting my journey?

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Yes! you are right !

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I will be launching on October 16, 2021.

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I will be launched on United Launch Alliance(ULA) Atlas V rocket from space launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral space force station, Florida.

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Do you know about how far I will travel?

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

let me tell you!

•I will travel almost 4 billion miles making three and a half giant loops around the Sun, averaging around 400,000 mph (15 km/s)! I will be the first spacecraft to travel out to the distance of Jupiter (actually a bit farther) and return to the vicinity of the Earth, for a final gravity assist that will send it back out to its final Trojan encounters.

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Let me give you more insight of my mission

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

I will be investigating seven primitive bodies near both the L4 and L5 Lagrange points with Jupiter: the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These planetesimals from the outer planetary system have been preserved since early in solar system history.

My mission will fly by and extensively study a diverse selection of Trojan asteroids, including all the recognized taxonomic classes, a collisional family member, and a near equal-mass binary. It will visit objects with diameters ranging from roughly 1 km to 100 km. The payload suite consists of a color camera and infrared imaging spectrometer, a high-resolution panchromatic image, and a thermal infrared spectrometer.

Additionally, two spacecraft subsystems will also contribute to the science investigations: the terminal tracking cameras will supplement imaging during closest approach and the telecommunication subsystem will be used to measure the mass of the Trojans. The science goals are derived from the 2013 Planetary Decadal Survey and include determining the surface composition, assessing the geology, determining the bulk properties, and searching for satellites and rings.

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Now you must have a question that why i will do only flybys?why i am not orbiting or getting samples from the asteroids?

It takes a lot of rocket fuel to slow down and orbit an asteroid, and even more fuel to leave and do it multiple times! As the first journey to the Trojan asteroids, Lucy serves as a scout, gathering lots of visual, compositional, and physical information with robotic cameras, spectrographs, and Doppler tracking (to measure the mass). In future missions, that information can be used to plan more exploration.

Now, this is the end of your curiosity, I will tell you what will happen to me at the end of the mission

After the end of my mission I will continue on a stable orbit traveling from near the Earth’s orbit and then out again into the Trojan swarms.

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The team of scientists have carefully planned so that I will not hit the Earth or contaminate any place that might have life for well over 100,000 years.

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Challenges faced:

I was the only one in my team, so creating this project all alone was a bit time consuming, but I had a lot of fun, I got to know more about Lucy mission. I always like to learn more and more and same trying with Nasa, trying to get more familiar with space apps. I hope my efforts will be appreciated and I will get a chance to visit my dream world “ NASA”.

Thank you

Did you like learning about me

References:

*https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/abf840

*https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/overview/index

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